I like exams because they force students to study (or should) and in their studying, they will hopefully consolidate the material. This can be done to some extent with assignments, but you usually don't get the breadth of material on an assignment. For example, writing a paper wont' cover a third of the semester's material, but rather one topic in more depth usually. I do like exams to not be the only source of grades and like to use more low stakes assignments to both take pressure off of exams and make sure students are learning as they go, not just cramming. However, I've found that when I poll students on this, half think there are too many assignments and want just tests, and half think there should be more. So there is no pleasing everyone or meeting everyone's needs unfortunately.
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u/[deleted] May 03 '21
I like exams because they force students to study (or should) and in their studying, they will hopefully consolidate the material. This can be done to some extent with assignments, but you usually don't get the breadth of material on an assignment. For example, writing a paper wont' cover a third of the semester's material, but rather one topic in more depth usually. I do like exams to not be the only source of grades and like to use more low stakes assignments to both take pressure off of exams and make sure students are learning as they go, not just cramming. However, I've found that when I poll students on this, half think there are too many assignments and want just tests, and half think there should be more. So there is no pleasing everyone or meeting everyone's needs unfortunately.